<p>The toughest schools to get into (according to PRs 2005 ranking) in order are:</p>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
</ol>
<p>A small school with an abundance of sports and the school''s commitment to excell in those sports means that there are fewer spots available for non athletes which increases the selectivity for those not in the athletic pool. Correspondingly it lowers the selectivity for those spots reserved for athletes as there are not as many athletes vying for each spot as there are the regular crowd. How that works out mathematically, depends on the specific numbers. Columbia and Williams are both examples of schools where the athletic pool makes it more difficult than the published stats to get into the school as they have many athletic spots. And some of those spots are given to kids whose stats would not get them into the school academically with sports as just a great EC. I know a few athletes at Williams specifically whose SATs and particularly their GPAs would not have gotten into that school under any other circumstances unless they did something so spectacular AND were terribly underpriviliged. But that they are great athletes at a sport the school covets trumps their academic records.</p>